


Disappearing

by TT40_Angst_Queen



Series: My Hurt/Comfort Bingo Card [2]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Disability, M/M, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 04:19:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12623028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TT40_Angst_Queen/pseuds/TT40_Angst_Queen
Summary: With Tony being as tired as he was, and his brain even more fuzzy with lack of food, he didn’t even notice the trip wire, and the next thing he was aware of was staring into a pair of beautiful icy-blue eyes that were wide with panic.





	Disappearing

The day had started out bad, to begin with. Immediately upon getting out of bed in the morning, Tony tripped over his pants he had discarded the night before. Then his shower had refused to give him any hot water, resulting in him being even colder than usual in the November weather. Then his coffee pot broke, making it so he couldn’t even warm up with his nice imported Hawaiian roast. Then he realized that because of a hot case that kept him busy and living on take-out for the past week, he had nothing in his fridge but old expired milk and some brown lettuce he swore had moved. Tony was sure that he could go to his favorite Cafe for some less expensive coffee and breakfast, but to add to his already horrid start to the day, the Cafe was closed for repairs for the whole week. 

 

It was a tired, sore, and hungry Anthony DiNozzo that entered the bullpen that day, but he refused to take it out on his co-workers, making him stay unnaturally quiet and subdued that morning. 

 

“You feeling ok, Tony?” Kate asked when he got in that morning, and he just smiled at her and laughed it off.

 

“I’m fine Katie-Kate, just a long night with a pair of very long legs.” but it seemed like his usual deflection wasn’t working, and his usually solid mask was paper thin today. He didn’t fool Kate, and he most certainly didn't fool Gibbs, judging by Gibbs’ double take and comment of “You look like crap, DiNozzo.” Tony thought he caught a hint of concern in the man’s eyes, but it was gone before he could tell.

 

“Gee, thanks, Boss,” Tony muttered into his hand, holding back a yawn.

 

“What was that, DiNozzo?” Tony winced at Gibbs’ sharp words and narrowed eyes.

 

“Nothing, Boss, Just a tickle, in my throat.” Gibbs narrowed his eyes, but seemed to accept the explanation and looked back at the paperwork on his desk.

 

“Then get to work, DiNozzo.”

 

“Yes, Boss!” Tony shoved his face in the first folder he saw, not noticing it was upside down, or the bemused look Kate shot him when she noticed.

  
  


Even McObserviant noticed that something was wrong with his partner, but Tony could tell he was too nervous to mention anything. 

 

Tony could tell by mid-morning that Gibbs was about to send him home. He was caught between wanting to go home and just curl in a ball after eating some take-out, or not wanting to go home to an empty and depressing apartment that didn’t even have the decency to give him hot water. The choice was taken out of both their hands when they were called out to a murder at- you guessed it- Rock Creek Park. That place should really have a warning attached to it. Something like:  _ ‘If you enter and are a Marine, you’ll probably be murdered. Enter at your own risk.’ _ or something. You would think after all those murders that popped up there, that Marine’s would take the hint and avoid it like the plague. Tony winced at that thought. Maybe not the plague, something else plague-like.  

 

Getting to the crime scene was a chore, and by the way, his day was going so far, Tony wasn’t even surprised at the heavy traffic that held them up. They arrived on the scene and immediately spread out doing their assigned jobs, Gibbs talking to the LEO’s that called it in. 

 

With Tony being as tired as he was, and his brain even more fuzzy with lack of food, he didn’t even notice the trip wire, and the next thing he was aware of was staring into a pair of beautiful icy-blue eyes that were wide with panic. He couldn’t hear anything but the ringing in his ears, but he could tell that Gibbs was saying something. He wished he took Abby up on her offer of lip reading lessons. He could feel a dull pain in his face, stomach, and his legs, but for some reason he really didn't want to think of, he couldn't feel anything below his left thigh, and that scared him. 

 

********************************************************

 

Gibbs had been talking to the LEO that had called them in,  trying to get the man to focus on him rather than the very buxom blond jogger that had screamed, alerting the officer to the body while he was on a coffee break. 

 

He had just been about to throw his arms up in defeat when he heard the blast. 

 

The shockwave had thrown all of them to the ground but luckily the bomb didn't seem that strong, so he figured nobody had been had been hurt.

 

He forgot about Rule 8.  _ Never Assume _ . 

 

He remembered that when he heard Kate and McGee’s horrified screams. 

 

“TONY!!!” the sound reached his ears and he shook off the shock, whipping his head around to look in the direction of where his Senior Agent had been. All he could see was a crumpled form on the ground, but something seemed… off. He could see where the blast had started, and where DiNozzo had landed and gulped when he realized that Tony had to be at the center of it. 

 

He immediately rushed to his agents' crumpled form, almost sighing in relief when he realized he was awake. He ran his gaze over DiNozzo’s form, immediately noticing his face was badly sliced and shrapnel was embedded in his stomach, it was only when his eyes landed on the younger man’s legs that Gibbs let out a low, sad moan.

 

“Aw hell, Tony…” the younger mans left leg was gone from mid-thigh down, completely blown off, and Gibbs faintly noticed with some horror that he could see the limb laying a few feet away, the foot still encased in those damn useless Italian shoes DiNozzo paid out the nose for.

 

“Oh, God…” he heard Kate’s voice from behind him, then heard her retching. 

 

“B-Boss..?” McGee’s voice was scared and horrified in equal measure, and Gibbs knew the last thing he needed was somebody snapping at him.

 

“Call an bus, McGee, and tell them an agent is down.” Gibbs kept his voice calm, but still hard as steel.

  
  


“A-already done, Boss. T-their five minutes out.” Gibbs nodded grimly. Good enough, he just hoped Tony would make it five minutes. He couldn’t lose him. Not now, not before he had the chance to tell him how he felt.

 

He noticed when Kate kneeled down on Tony’s other side, her hands hovering, wondering what she should do.

 

“Don’t put pressure on his stomach, Kate. that shrapnel is stopping him from bleeding out, and pushing on it will just shred his insides more.” Kate nodded, looking more than a little green, but her hand settled on Tony’s hair, stroking it softly.

 

“You’re going to be fine, Tony,” Kate told him, her voice trembling, her eyes wet. “You have to be, or Abby will cry and you hate it when your little sister cries. And you and Gibbs need to get your heads outta’ your asses and kiss already, McGee and I can’t handle the sexual tension between you two anymore.” Gibbs’ head snapped up at that, and Kate just gave him a wink, while McGee gave him a scared, wide-eyed look. 

 

He could hear the sound of approaching sirens, and when the ambulance finally arrived, he was hard-pressed to move out of the way of the paramedics. He eventually conceded, and they immediately loaded him up and sped away, not even asking if anyone wanted to ride along.

 

***************************************************

 

Tony woke up slowly, the haze of painkillers making him a bit fuzzy around the edges.

 

“You’re awake.” Tony nodded and groaned.

 

“T’ink I g’t bl’wn up B’ss..”

 

“Yeah Tony, you- yeah, you did.” Gibbs’ voice was soft, but the underlying sadness in it made Tony immediately alert.

 

“Boss, what’s- is something wrong?” Tony’s eyes widened, and his thoughts went towards his two partners. “Please don’t tell me Kate or Probie got hurt, Boss,” Tony whimpered, “Please…” Gibbs’ shook his head slowly.

 

“No, Tony. They’re fine.” Tony relaxed only slightly, still noticing Gibbs’ subdued tone and the fact that he refused to meet his eyes directly. 

 

“Then- Boss, if Probie and Kate are ok… then why won’t you look at me?” Tony ignored the pain that was swiftly returning. This was more important. Gibbs was sad, and Tony had never seen the older man look like that, like someone died.

 

“Boss, why do you look like someone killed your puppy?” Tony tried to joke. He tried to inject some humour into the conversation in hopes that it would cheer up the man he had massively crushed on since he tackled him in Baltimore. 

 

Gibbs looked away, his mouth twitching, and Tony would have been happy with that if it wasn’t the saddest smile he had ever seen.

 

“Aw, Tony,” Gibbs looked at Tony, finally meeting his eyes, and Tony was struck with the pure  _ sympathy  _ in those beautiful blue pools. “You almost died,  _ my loyal Saint Bernard _ ,” Gibbs leaned closer and placed his hand on his check, the calloused palm and fingers were gentle and warm. Tony’s breath caught in his throat at the intimate gesture. Gibbs continued to speak, his voice slightly choked. “So yeah, someone almost killed  _ my puppy _ .” Gibbs’ eyes flashed to the side for a moment, and Tony wouldn’t have noticed if it wasn’t for the fact that he was staring intently into Gibbs’ eyes, knowing there was something he wasn’t telling him. The fact that the man tried to cover up the action only made that though stronger. Tony went to look where Gibbs’ eyes flashed, over by his legs, but Gibbs’ hand stayed firm on his cheek, unrelenting in it’s task to keep Tony’s gaze right where it was. 

 

“Boss?” Tony mumbled, suddenly worried. Why wouldn’t Gibbs let him look at his own legs? “Boss why-?” Gibbs clenched his eyes shut, and grimaced. He opened his eyes again and gave Tony a pleading look. 

 

“Don’t look right now, Tony,” Gibbs whispered, and Tony could feel panic rising in his chest at the words. Gibbs still hadn’t removed his hand, still stopping him from looking anywhere but into his blue eyes. “Don’t look, not until I tell you what happened, ok?” Tony’s eyes were wide with fright, and usually at this point he would be struggling in stubborn determination to look at what Gibbs was trying to hide from him. But something told him that he really didn’t want to know this time.something told him he wasn’t  _ ever _ going to want to know. So he listened to Gibbs, and kept his head and eyes exactly where the older man wanted them. It helped that the view wasn’t half bad, either.

 

*********************************************

 

Gibbs didn’t quite know how he was going to tell Tony that his left leg had been blown off, and that he would need a mechanical one for the rest of his life. He consoled himself with the fact that with a lot of PT, and when Tony was used to the leg, he could come back to work. And with specialized PT that Morrow had offered to pay for along with the rest of his hospital bills, Tony would even be a Field Agent again. He didn’t think Tony could live if he had lost his ability to do his job. Much like Gibbs, this job was all Tony had. He didn’t know how to explain it, but he was going to do his damndest to try and make it easier to swallow for green eyed beauty.

 

“Ok Tony, You remember that you were blown up, right?” the younger man nodded, and the confusion and panic in those green eyes he loved so much made Gibbs’ chest hurt. “Well you got hurt, Tony. You got some cuts on your face, they’re gonna’ scar,” Tony winced at that, and Gibbs ran his thumb along Tony’s cheekbone in comfort, his heart skipping a beat when Tony leaned into it. “Your stomach was pierced with a lot of shrapnel, and they had to take out one of your kidneys. That’s gonna leave a pretty good group of scars there,” Tony nodded. And Gibbs took a breath, hesitating on continuing, knowing that the next part was going to be the hardest thing he had ever said to Tony, and it was even harder because of his feelings for the younger man. He could tell when Tony felt his hesitation, and could see the sudden rise in panic it his eyes. 

 

“Gibbs, what-” Gibbs’ eyes clenched shut and he gritted his teeth, and Tony stopped talking. 

 

“Tony, your left leg-” Gibbs shook his head and opened his eyes, staring into the green depths. “Tony, your left leg was blown off in the blast.”

 

Gibbs should have seen it coming. Tony had started to hyperventilate, and when Gibbs let go of his face to try and help, Tony’s eyes went to the one place Gibbs had been trying to hide from him. Still hyperventilating, Tony frantically clutched at the stub that ended mid thigh, emptiness where a leg used to be.

 

Eventually, the nurses had to come in and sedate him, and Gibbs blew out a huge breath when they left and Tony was knocked out in a drug-induced sleep.

 

He put his head in his hands, his eyes wet and stinging. 

 

“I’m so sorry Tony…”

 

***********************************************

 

The next few months were a never ending cycle of eat, PT, Sleep. Rinse and repeat. It was hard on Tony but with the looming promise of returning to work as a Field Agent again made the light at the end of the dark, painful tunnel that much brighter. Gibbs was there every step of the way, using up as much as he could of his allotted vacation time that he had never before used. When that option was gone, he visited Tony whenever the older man wasn’t at work.

 

It was the last day of his time spent at Bethesda Naval PT Unit, and Tony was excitedly waiting for Gibbs to pick him up. They were going straight to work, as Tony didn’t want to waste any time at getting back to the job he loved. He had grown closer to the older man over the past few months, and at times he swore he saw Gibbs looking at him the same way Tony looked at Gibbs when he wasn’t looking. But he wasn’t going to make the first move, he didn’t want to ruin the close relationship that had grown even closer since he lost his leg. 

 

The sound of a throat clearing grabbed his attention, and Tony looked up from where he was sitting. Gibbs was looking at him with a big smile and Tony returned it.

“You ready to go, Tony?” Gibbs clapped Tony’s shoulder, laughing when Tony glared at him with no heat in the look. 

 

“Yeah, just..” Gibbs seemed to pick up on his hesitation, and rubbed his shoulder. 

 

“Nervous?” Gibbs asked gently, and Tony nodded. 

 

“What if I mess up? What if need help or-” Gibbs put a finger to Tony’s lips, and his green eyes went cross-eyed trying to look at it. He didn’t notice gibbs moving closer until the finger was replaced with a pair of chapped but wonderfully soft and warm lips. Tony closed his eyes after the first moment of shock, relaxing into the kiss, a press of lips with a promise of more. Gibbs pulled back, and after a moment, Tony slowly opened his eyes, his soft smile matching the one Gibbs was giving him, the blue eyes warm and loving.

 

“We’ll get through it together, Tony.” Gibbs hand stoked his cheek, and Tony Gave a beautiful smile.

 

“Yeah?” Tony asked softly.

 

“Yeah,” Gibbs whispered, pressing his lips to Tony’s again.

 

“I can live with that,” Tony laughed, and Gibbs’ answering smile was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.  


End file.
